"He didn't ask for what happened to him"

[Timo]

So, what's first should be accurate and what comes later is the screw up.

Not necessarily. For example, when the Borg in later episodes behave differently from what our heroes said about them in "Q Who?" or "Best of Both Worlds", it makes more sense to assume that those early episodes showed screwups (that is, our heroes made wrong guesses) and the later episodes got it right at last.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Wingsley]

It seemed to me that WNMHGB was establishing that Kirk felt friendship for Mitchell much more than Mitchell felt it for Kirk. The whole elevator scene (and the "walking freezer unit" scene) established for me that Mitchell thought he had everyone around him all figured out. If Mitchell had not been affected by the barrier, he and Kirk would have remained friends with Mitchell probably hitching his career wagon (at least for a while) to Kirk's command/ambitions. Mitchell would've respected Kirk and gone along to get along. But Mitchell would've thought he had Kirk all figured out.

But WNMHGB was, of course, about Kirk. Kirk had to go and kill a friend who had become a "monster". This caused Kirk's personality to change. Would Kirk of TOS have been as attached to a "friend" as he was to Mitchell in WNMHGB? Maybe, maybe not. I think he got tougher. Look at the briefing room scene when Kirk and Spock are alone: "We're talking about Gary!" Kirk of WNMHGB sounds more like McCoy than at just about any other time during TOS outside of "City of the Edge of Forever".

Vonda McIntyre seemed to nail Mitchell's attitude in her "Enterprise: The First Adventure" novel in 1986.

 

[Ssosmcin]

So, what's first should be accurate and what comes later is the screw up.

Not necessarily. For example, when the Borg in later episodes behave differently from what our heroes said about them in "Q Who?" or "Best of Both Worlds", it makes more sense to assume that those early episodes showed screwups (that is, our heroes made wrong guesses) and the later episodes got it right at last.

Timo Saloniemi

Well, that was the writers again making changes in order to keep using them as villains. They just hope people roll with it. But being Trek fans, we see all and remember all. Just saying that looking at it in the other direction, with future alterations being incorrect, puts a different (and equally valid) spin on it.

Actually, as for the Borg, I felt it made more sense not to ignore how they were introduced, but how the changes introduced into the collective by Picard and Hugh made them change their mission. They gained more through assimilating other species and their characteristics instead of simply their technology. You could follow the writers and loosely connect the dots. That makes more sense, continuity wise, than Kirk's initial meaning "racquetball" or whatever "R" words they used as a joke in a novel. Well, IMO, anyway.

 

[Steven Of Nine]

They may not have been best friends, but they're certainly good friends.

Dehner tells Kirk Mitchell's said to her how long they've been friends. She has understood this to be such a good friendship she can't believe Kirk's treating him the way he is. Of course, she doesn't understand Kirk's "ship before anything" mentality, either.

Don't understand the need to retcon the Kirk-Mitchell friendship. It's obviously a very strong one, and is used to demonstrate Kirk's great trust in Spock's judgment, when they "set course for Delta Vega."

 

[Red Ranger]

In the first draft of the script, it says Mitchell put 'R' there because they used to dress as pirates during sexplay.

Joe, noted Trek historian

Some time, all of these morsels are going to have to be collected and archived.

Joe, the Series! Yeah, that made me laugh, too. BTW, Shatmandu, your avatar's shifty eyes are making me nervous!

To weigh in on the actual topic, I think it's apparent Kirk and Mitchell are long-time friends. No question there. Kirk's final log entry confirms it.

Red Ranger

 

[Shatmandu]

In the first draft of the script, it says Mitchell put 'R' there because they used to dress as pirates during sexplay.

Joe, noted Trek historian

Some time, all of these morsels are going to have to be collected and archived.

Joe, the Series! Yeah, that made me laugh, too.

I always assumed they would appear together somewhere, in some sort of court proceeding ...

BTW, Shatmandu, your avatar's shifty eyes are making me nervous!

Afro-Shat likes to check out what you're wearing. Or not wearing.

Joe, unafroed

 

[The Grim Ghost]

I assumed that they were close friends. Perhaps the waters have been made a little muddy by certain novels I've read about Mitchel and Kirk though.

I always wished it had been "James D. Kirk", for Dunsel (sp?) but obviously they hasn't done the Ultimate Computer ep yet. It would have worked well, saying that Kirk and all humans were now useless objects compared to the next step in evolution, Mitchell.

 

[Basill]

...Although the "R/T" discussion is meaningless...the explanation for that is simply that Kirk's middle name began with an "R" when WNMHGB was made, but somewhere along the way the creators/producers/writers of Star Trek changed it to a "T". It's not the first or last inconsistency within TOS.

Ummm...

I think we all know what the real world reasons could have been.

Any time this is brought up, it's fans speculating on a "why" having to do with the in-story continuity. That's not meaningless. It's a mental exercise involving something we enjoy.

It's sort of like discussing the motivations of characters in a classic novel. Sorry, but characters in novels don't have motivations. They do what the writer makes them do. Still, that doesn't mean we can't discuss why a character MIGHT have done what they did. It's a bit of fun.

Much the same with Star Trek and the WNMHGB tombstone. WHY did Gary put in the middle initial R, in light of what we later hear Kirk's middle initial to be? Personally, I think he might have just been getting in another dig in what he thought were Kirk's last moments. Maybe a leftover from an old joke or an old nickname Kirk was known by.

Don't stifle "playing with Trek". People enjoy it and have the right to!

Exactly. Aside from production gaffes and less than established backgrounds in a series pilot, I've often retconned that maybe Mitchell was fully aware of the T, knew Kirk hated the name Tiberius (as most of us might) and in his arrogance of godliness was showing "mercy" on Kirk by putting in that other letter he knew he preferred, or that they had previously joked about. Granted, it was in poor taste given the circumstances. After all, little jokes when you are killing your best friend because you now believe he is but an ant next to you... poor taste. But Gary Mitchell wasn't known for his decorum.

I know, I know... Tiberius wasn't necessarily canon until General Chang spoke it aloud, but it is a retcon, and I can totally sympathize. I personally hate my given first name, and do everything in my power to never hear it spoken aloud in it's full form.

 

[Sector 7]

But you really DON'T need an explanation. It's just a TV show. We know the real reason why, because details and such were still in flux. There is no reason to have to make up a pretend/fictional reason for the middle name because it doesn't exactly match what came later.

It doesn't matter. Sometimes I think we just need to enjoy the show without over-analyzing it to death or getting so wrapped up in canon and continuity that we argue over what is trivial.

Agreed. Remember that WNMHGB was the second pilot for the series. As such, much was not yet set in stone (pun intended).
Perhaps it is fine to play around with explanations, but when we start quoting someone's guess as hard fact... that is when I lose interest. Mayhap some take their play too seriously.

 

[Photoman15]

Obviously his name was supposed to be James Roy Kirk. When someone stuck a T in there, the writer of "THE CHANGELING" had to scramble to make Nomad a moron who couldn't tell the difference between JAMES T KIRK and ROYKIRK, his creators name.

 

[david g]

Let me just say this is one of my very favorite TOS episodes.

Part of what makes it so good is the suggestion of deep friendship bw Kirk and Mitchell. Those shots in which Gary comes back, so briefly, to himself are what make the episode so wrenching. When Gary reverts back to Gary, Kirk is reminded of his good friend, and of the horror of having to destroy the thing he's become.

I also like Sally Kellerman's psychiatrist and wish she'd been a regular character. I much prefer her to TNG's conceptualization of Troi, actually.